Why Do We Call Him Donald J. Trump?

Ask The Times, a Times Insider feature, draws on New York Times staff members’ expertise to answer questions about current events, science, sports, culture and whatever else is making headlines.

A reader asks: “I’ve noticed that when referring to Donald Trump, The Times usually uses his middle initial, J. I’ve also noticed that this is not/was not the case for the other candidates, like Hillary [Rodham omitted] Clinton and John [Richard omitted] Kasich. So why the initial for Mr. Trump?”

Charles V. Bagli, a Metro reporter who writes about the intersection of politics and real estate — and has covered Mr. Trump for years — responds.

“I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”

Words to live by for many politicians, businessmen, authors and con artists, even if no one knows whether this bit of insight originally came from P.T. Barnum, Mae West, George M. Cohan or someone else.

But which of the potentially many versions of a person’s name does a newspaper like The Times choose to use when it refers to an individual in a story?